


Savior of The Universe: Season One

by voltron savior of the universe (honorofgayskull)



Category: Voltron Reboot - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen, Reboot, its a reboot baby!, thats why im not tagging characters/ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-07-31 09:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20113192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honorofgayskull/pseuds/voltron%20savior%20of%20the%20universe
Summary: Years into the future, the evil Emperor Zanvex, ruler of the Golvia aliens, is bent on ruling the entire known universe. Most yield to him, hoping for mercy, for those who don’t are destroyed. The only force that could save them is Voltron, but that is no more than a fairy tale. Or so everyone thought….Four human cadets from Earth’s International Space Exploration Association— which also acts as an academy training eager applicants for space travel— joined by their commander and famous astronaut, are unknowingly the souls destined for being a part of Voltron. They, joined by aliens woken from a 10,000 year sleep, work together to save the universe from Zanvex’s grasp.





	Savior of The Universe: Season One

Even in a spacesuit, it’s cold, and the wind bites at his skin, but Katsuo holds the extraction machine as still as he can as it whirrs and pulls a tube of ice out of the moon’s surface.

“That’s amazing.” Charlie’s voice comes through Katsuo’s comm in an awed whisper. He pulls out the ice from the extraction tube, a gloved hand guiding it as it descends. Behind him stands his father, watching over the two as they work.

“It’s ice,” Katsuo says, chuckling as he does so.

“It’s possibility! It could be the key to life outside Earth!” Charlie corrects excitedly.

Katsuo rolls his eyes, but stays silent as Charlie continues.

“We could have the chance to watch a whole new planet of life evolve and grow! And stop ruining my fun old man, anyone else would kill to be in your spot.”

“Hey! I’m not the old man here,” Katsuo says.

“Then who is?” Albert asks, causing the three of them to laugh.

Over their laughs comes a sound. A deep rumbling sound that causes the trio to look into the sky. Katsuo gasps at what he sees.

A spaceship. Obviously an alien one, because Earth has never made anything like that. It is huge—  _ gigantic _ — and dark with purple lights. The type he’s only seen in stories. Charlie drops the ice in shock; it clinks on the ground and pieces chip off. Questions race through Katsuo’s mind, but he remains speechless.

But those questions might be answered soon if he doesn’t act, so he comes out of his shocked state first. Grabbing the Simmons’ shoulders, he knocks them back to reality.

“Run,” he tells them, voice strained. “Run!”

Turning around, the trio runs away from the cruiser and towards their own ship. But a purple light surrounds them as they do so. It’s stronger than the moon’s gravity, and pulls them up and away from safety, along with a lot of equipment and loose rocks.

Katsuo’s mind races again for a possible way out of this, but a flying piece of debris knocks him unconscious before anything comes to mind.

When he comes to, he is on his knees. His eyes are closed and he can feel his head hanging down. Something holds his hands behind his back, and a voice is speaking.

“-t’s, uh, known by natives as  _ Earth _ , sir, from the fourth quadrant, third subsection. The planet is primitive, and has never travelled outside it’s star system.”

Katsuo listens as he groggily opens his eyes, and is met with a dark metal floor. He lifts his head as the voice continues speaking.

“This team of primitive scientists were found while we were scouting in the outer planets of the system,” the voice says, and it belongs to, presumably, a soldier, who wears dark armor. He has lilac hair, and purple skin. He faces away from Katsuo and speaks to a screen with what Katsuo can only assume is their leader. Most of him is shrouded in shadow, only showing piercing red eyes.

His voice is low and rumbling when he speaks. “Take them to the Druids. They will find out what they know.”

Katsuo doesn’t know what the druids are, but they don’t sound nice, so he speaks up.

“Please, no! We are unarmed, and mean no harm! We come from a peaceful planet and—” Something blunt hits his back with so much force that he is unconscious again.

He wakes again, and is being dragged. His arms are above his head and held together by handcuffs. He opens his eyes and looks up.

One of the Simmons is being led behind him by a soldier. He, conscious and walking, has his helmet on, so Katsuo couldn’t tell who it is. He assumes the other one is in front.

They are traveling down a hallway, with dark metal and purple lights, as before. But there are little spaces in the walls, illuminated by green strips of lights. Through them Katsuo spots eyes— alien eyes, peering at him and his team.

“There’s more,” one says, their voice low and strange.

“New inmates?“ another asks to no one in particular, voice high and shrill.

“Fresh blood,“ a third drawls, and their voice sounds like pain— a nonsensical description, but the only possible way of describing it.

Turning his head the other way, Katsuo sees something morbid.

A window, showing multiple floors of the ship. And ceiling to floor, as far as his eyes can see, there are cells. An entire spaceship’s worth of innocent beings, trapped for petty crimes, or no crimes at all.

He can only gasp in awe, shock, and terror.

<><><>

“I-S-E-A flight log two-dash-four-one-two,” they say, their tone a bit lazy as they move their hands around the controls, pressing buttons and flipping switches.

The hands drift back to the joysticks that steer the ship. “Beginning decent to Kerberos for rescue mission.”

They turn the controls to bring the ship in a steady downward course to the moon’s surface, but the change in atmosphere causes the ship to shake and rattle around them, only for a moment then it’s gone. But that moment causes them to hear an uncomfortable groan.

“Al, can you keep the ship straight?” Sefa asks from the mechanic’s seat, behind Al’s pilot seat at the front.

“You know I can’t,” Al responds with a grin (and a sigh from Sefa) as they double check the controls to see if they missed anything that could’ve caused the shaking. Nothing; they lean back into their seat, hands loosely around the control’s joysticks again. “But really, I’m not doing anything.”

Then a sudden ping comes from where the third member sits, behind them at the right wall.

“We’ve picked up a distress beacon!” Rose announces, turning in her seat to face Al.

At her statement, Al sits up and gets more serious, getting their hands steady and firm on the joysticks. “All right, look alive, team! Rose, track coordinates.”

“Copy,” Rose responds, turning back to her seat and flying her fingers across various screens.

As this all happens, the ship starts shaking again.

“Knock it off, Al, please!” Sefa pleads over the noise.

“Oh no, this one's on you, Sef. We’ve got a hydraulic stabilizer out,” Al says, not looking to Sefa as they focus on keeping the ship as stable as possible despite the shaking.

They hear Sefa pull up a screen and tap at it, but it is interrupted by the low sound of him trying not to puke.

“Oh no,” Sefa says to himself, voice restrained. He swallows and groans quietly.

“Fix now, puke later!” Al didn’t bother to hide the disgust on their face as they spoke.

“I lost contact. The shaking is interfering with our sensors,” Rose says then, sounding stressed.

“Come on, Sefa!” Al says, exasperated.

“It’s not responding. Ugh….” His voice is low as he tries to keep it together. He unbuckles his belt and goes to the gearbox next to Rose’s station to fix the problem.

As this happens, Al’s monitor pings, alerting them to the target that the ship has automatically locked on to. They smile and relax their grip on the joysticks. “Oh, never mind, fellas. Thar she blows. Preparing for approach on visual.”

Rose speaks up again. “I don't think that's advisable with our current mechanical and—” Sefa makes another noise as he holds back vomit. Rose grimaces. “…gastrointestinal issues.”

“Agreed,” Sefa manages to say.

Al rolls their eyes. “Stop worrying. This baby can take it.” They pet the ship lovingly, speaking to it. “Can’t you, champ?”

The ship rumbles violently in response. “Uh, see? She was— she was nodding. She was nodding,” they say, trying to convince the others as well as themself.

“Rose, hail down to them and let them know their ride is here,” they say, facing forward as the ship gets closer to the target. Almost there.

Rose unbuckles her seatbelt to reach the microphone attached to her station’s overhead control board. “Attention lunar vessel— ah!” She falls to the floor as the ship gives a particularly violent shake.

“What are you doing?” Al asks, growing irritated as they look at Rose on the floor. Honestly, she’s a child genius yet she can’t remember to stay seated in a spaceship. “Buckle your belt. And Sef, stop that shaking!”

“I-I'm try— ah— ah o-oh no—!“ Sefa interrupts himself as he vomits in the main gearbox and the rumbling stops. A part of Al’s mind wonders if puke can fix ships.

As Sefa gets back into his seat, Rose gets back in hers and speaks into the microphone.

“Attention lunar vessel, this is I-S-E-A rescue craft one-victor-six-three-tango. Coming in for landing and extraction,” She gives Al a look as she adds, “against crew recommendations.”

“Uh, no time for your mutinous comments now, Simmons,” Al says, the irritation in their voice growing. “They’re going under and we're going in.”

They dive the simulator towards the surface of Kerberos. Their irritation melts away as they get in the final stretch of this flight. They’re getting close to the moon’s surface, but not close enough for Rose’s standards, apparently. “Look out for that overhang!”

Honestly, Al is offended at her doubt, but they keep their voice light. “No worries! They didn’t call me 'The Tailor' in first year for nothing. I always  _ thread the needle _ !” They give her a look, hoping she gets the double entendres. Her dry responding look tells them she does.

They turn back and focus on getting under the overhang, muttering to themself as the stubborn controls don’t listen. “Come around, come around! Come on, come on—!”

The ship strikes the overhang, and everything shakes even harder than it had before. Sefa shouts, “We lost a wing!”

Rather than do anything, Al just leans back, sighs and speaks quietly to themself. “Oh, man….”

The ship crashes into Kerberos’ surface and everyone jolts forward; Al puts their arm on the control board above them to keep from hitting their head.

Then everything goes dark and quiet.

The words “Simulation Failed” appear on the screen that was formerly the simulated view of Kerberos, and a feminine robotic voice speaks them.

Al imitates the voice. “ _ Simulation failed _ .”

A brief second of silence passes before the simulation are doors opening and their commander is barking orders to them.

“Roll out donkeys!” He leans his head down to glare at the trio.

Said trio gets out of the simulator and falls into line as Commander Stevens starts pacing back and forth in front of them. Al stays as still as they can, legs together, arms firmly behind their back, eyes forward, expression neutral, and back straighter than they are.

They really want to keep making bisexual jokes instead of listen to Stevens go on for the millionth time about how bad they are at this, separately and together. So they do.

That is, until Stevens says, “These mistakes are exactly what caused the lives of the pilots on the Kerberos mission!”

Al knows what to wait for at that, and it happens.

Rose’s neutral expression wipes clean off and is replaced by anger. “That’s not true sir!”

“What.” Stevens asks. It isn’t a question.

Al leans towards her and slaps one hand over mouth, while putting the other on the back of her head, effectively preventing her from saying anything else.

“Don’t mind her, commander. She must’ve hit her head one too many times in there,” they say with a smile and a chuckle that (hopefully) doesn’t tell Stevens that they 100% agree with Rose.

Rose tries to get them to move their hand by licking their palm, but they grew up with four siblings and now has a niece and nephew, all who have done the same trick to them so many times that they’re immune to a little saliva.

But they do eventually let go of her when they can tell she won’t say anything else, and they manage to wipe off the spit on their suit as they brought their arms behind their back again, but that little victory is interrupted when Stevens leans in close. Right up in their business, all up where Al can see the lettuce he had for lunch.  _ Ugh, and smell that  _ breath _ . Gross. _

But they have to stay standing still and staring straight ahead as Stevens speaks, so they do, hiding their grimace as best as they can.

“The only reason you’re here is because the best in your class had a discipline issue and flunked out,” Stevens says.

“Don’t follow in his footsteps.”

<><><>

“Don’t follow in his footsteps, blah blah blah, I’m an asshole, look at me!” Al says, moving around the dorm and putting things away. Their bags and books neatly on their desk, their pillows on their bed, arranged to appear like a body is sleeping there.

“He’s so stupid! And he keeps talking about that idiotic,  _ mulleted _ , annoying asshole who dropped out a  _ year _ ago! What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know, Al, but you should stop cussing out Stevens when he could be right outside the door,” Sefa says from where he lays on his bed, the lower half of the bunk the two of them share. He is typing on a tablet, doing homework.

He watches Al, or rather their midsection, as they makes the pillow-dummy. “Also you don’t have to do this, your mom isn’t coming in to check on you.”

“It’s honestly habit at this point. Either way, ‘it’s better to have it and not need it than to—’”

“‘need it and not have it’,” Sefa finishes as Al backs up from the bunk. “Wanna tell me again why you’re sneaking out this time?”

“We should bond as a team!” Al says, “You, me, and Rose. I’m going out to hang with her, and you’re coming with us.”

“She doesn’t seem like she wants to hang out,” Sefa says.

In his eyes, she isn’t into breaking rules so much, unless it’s about the Kerberos mission. Which he understands, they are her family.

“Well, I’m gonna make her,” Al says, grabbing their shoes, dark combat boots they wear everywhere. “She needs to have fun, everyone does. Where’s my jacket?”

Sefa sits up, pointing to the closet where Al’s clothes are. Al follows his direction and finds the deep brown jacket they love so much. They pull it over their blue sleeveless turtleneck as they turn to face Sefa.

“You gotta be honest, it’s a lot better than homework.” They smirk at the tablet Sefa had been typing in.

“It is, but this is due tomorrow, and it’s super long,” Sefa replies. Stupid homework, he could be out and having fun, but no.

“Really?” Al whines. “We won’t be gone long. And what if me and Rose go on some… grand adventure, leaving you at the I-Sea? I wouldn’t be able to pick up cuties without my favorite wingman.”

While giving Al a look at the wingman thing, Sefa tries to imagine what would happen if that was true. Them and Rose off doing something amazing, while Sefa is stuck back home, watching from the sidelines. It sounds boring. But then again, what are the chances of that happening?

Al speaks again. “Fine, whatever floats your goat. Whatever milks your boat. I guess I’ll just go have fun with Rose while you do homework.” They pick up their boots and walks in socked feet to Sefa. They lean down and practically touch their nose to Sefa’s. “Have fun bud.”

Sefa sighs, sitting up and putting his tablet away in his bag. Al is too good at guilting him into bad ideas.

Al smiles as Sefa puts on his yellow hoodie and backpack, and grabs his boots without putting them on, a trick Al taught him early in the year that allows them to be quieter while sneaking.

“Knew you’d come around,” Al says.

“You’d do something stupid on your own,” Sefa says in return, causing Al to have to stifle their laugh. They exit their dorm and made their way to Rose’s.

Only to find an unresponsive door. She can’t not be there, she never breaks curfew, and there’s a bathroom in each dorm. Plus, she has a mini fridge, so she doesn’t need to leave for a midnight snack. And there is no reason for her to be ignoring a knocking door.

Al knocks again. No answer.

“Roseeee,” Al whisper-yells. Still no answer.

“You think she snuck out?” Sefa asks.

“Or she’s sleeping,” Al says, “Either way, she’s coming with us whether she likes it or not.”

They open Rose’s door, successfully pressing the keypad’s combination on the first try. To Sefa’s confusion, Al says, “She made the mistake of letting me in her dorm alone once. I found the combo pretty quickly.”

“Of course you did,” Sefa says, fondly exasperated.

Entering the dorm, the pair is met with an empty room, clean and neat except for a desk with papers strewn over them, which is normal for Rose. But doesn’t she usually have a ton of technical gadgets lying around?

What grabs Sefa’s attention most though is the open window. Lightly elbowing Al’s side, he points to it, causing Al to make a confused face.

“She snuck out the window? We’re on the fourth floor!” they whisper-yell, hurriedly walking to the window and looking out it. Sefa follows.

His eyes meet concrete, right up close. Then it hit him. That’s right! The fourth floor isn’t quite as big as the third, so the third floor’s roof makes sneaking out easy.

“Smart kid,” Sefa says.

“She gets it from me,” Al responds, already pulling on their boots to jump out the window.

<><><>

Rose Simmons is eighteen years old, and has the rebelliousness of one with strict parents. Add that to her genius from both of her parents and brother, it’s no surprise she’s able to sneak around a heavily patrolled facility without being caught on camera.

Well, she’s smaller than the average eighteen year old, so that definitely helps. But she hates it, and refuses to believe that’s why she hasn’t been caught yet.

But yeah, she knows how to sneak, and she does, practically every evening. She packs up her computer and equipment into her backpack, sneaks out her window onto the I.S.E.A. roof, up to the highest point she can reach without being caught, and does her thing.

That thing, tonight, is interrupted by a hand pulling back her headphones and a voice in her ear.

“You come up here to rock out?” She can’t tell who the voice belongs to, the presence of it too surprising.

Rose jumps with a small yelp and whips her head to face her new company. Al smiles mischievously, on one knee right behind her, and Sefa stands a bit back, a sympathetic grin on his face.

“Oh, it’s just you,” she mumbles, and sighs. A lot better than any teacher, but still, she prefers to be alone up here.

“Yeah, Stevens would kill you if he found out about this,” Al says, moving to sit on their knees next to her. Sefa joins on her other side.

“What are you doing up here?” he asks.

Rose quickly glances at the equipment before her. Her computer, which displays a line that barely squiggles as it picks up light sound from the sound equipment around it, along with a pair of binoculars, her headphones, a notepad, and a small few pages of notes ripped off and kept under a piece of equipment so they don’t blow away with the light wind. The top page on the pad depicts her doodles, mainly of a mean looking robot with laser eyes fighting crudely drawn aliens. It’s close to her, so she reaches out and flips it over so they don’t see it.

“Uh… stargazing,” she answers, not looking at either of her friends, afraid that her expression might give away the blatant lie.

“Stargazing?” Al asks, and she doesn’t have to look at them to know they have an eyebrow raised.

“Yup, just looking at the stars.” She watches as the squiggly line squiggles more as their voices get picked up by the sound equipment.

A moment of silence, then, “Liar.”

Rose turns her head to look at Al. They change the topic, luckily for her, choosing instead to poke at her computer. “Where’d you get this stuff?”

She grew a bit smug at that. “I built it.”

“Really? All of this?” Sefa asks.

“Yup, it can scan to the edge of the solar system,” Rose responds, smirking.

Al hums, impressed. “All the way to Kerberos?”

Rose’s smirk falls away and looks down into her lap. She says nothing.

A beat of silence, then Al speaks again. “What are you really doing up here?”

Rose ponders for a moment, then sighs. “Fine.” She looks to her equipment again. “I’ve been scanning the system… and trying to pick up alien radio chatter.” They’re not gonna believe her.

“What?” Sefa asks, shocked and a bit fearful. “Aliens?”

“I said stop lying,” Al says. Rose turns to look at them.

“I’m not lying, they’re out there. What else could’ve taken the Kerberos pilots?”

“They were on Pluto’s moon, the farthest humans have ever gotten from Earth,” Al says, “Anything could’ve happened.”

Before Rose can respond, alarms blare from the building’s speakers, and a voice follows.

“Attention students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation zulu-niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice,” Stevens commands.

“We should—” Al can’t finish their suggestion, because something fiery comes out from behind the clouds and soars across the sky.

“What is that, a meteor?” Sefa asks.

Rose reaches out and grabs her binoculars, looking up at the object. She gasps. “It’s a ship!”

“A ship?” Sefa sounds as shocked as Rose. She’s also a bit fascinated…. Okay, really fascinated. Can she be blamed?  _ Real _ aliens!

“That is  _ definitely _ not one of ours,” Al says.

“It’s one of  _ theirs _ ,” Rose adds, her fascination leaking into her tone.

“There are really aliens out there,” Sefa says, amazed.

“We’ve got to see that ship!” Rose says, moving into a kneel. She starts gathering her equipment up and is glad when her friends help her, although Sefa looks hesitant.

“Don’t you think that’s dangerous?” he asks.

“Fear is the enemy of progress, Sef,” Al answers.

“Yeah, I get that, but, aliens. We don’t know anything about them. Every alien movie I’ve ever watched says they probably aren’t friendly,” Sefa rambles nervously.

The last of Rose’s stuff is in her bag and she zips it closed. “‘Probably’.” She stands, and the other two join her. “They could be nice.”

“Yeah! Let’s go meet them,” Al says, and Sefa sighs.

“There’s no changing your guys’ minds, is there?”

<><><>

Al peers through the binoculars, at the crash site. I.S.E.A. scientists have already shown up, so their group is staying out of the way, up on a hill. Rose is typing at her computer, and Sefa is watching her. They mutter to each other as they work on something, but Al is busying themself with watching the outside of the site.

The crashed ship lays half buried in the dirt, and next to it is a tent set up for whatever, or  _ whoever _ , is inside.

“What  _ is _ that?” Al asks, half to themself, as they focus on the crashed ship. It’s open, but they can’t see inside. Ugh.

“Hold on, we’re hacking into the cameras they have set up in the tent,” Rose says.

Al looks away from the site and at the screen they’re working on. Rose types a moment longer, then the camera’s feed is on, and Al can’t help but gasp at what they see.

“Hey! What are you doing!?” Katsuo shouts, strapped to a table.

Katsuo.  _ The _ Katsuo Tanaka, famous pilot and leader of the Kerberos mission. Contrary to what everyone has been saying for the past year, he’s very much alive, and currently struggling against the binds keeping him on the table.

He looks different too. The skin that is exposed is covered in scars, most notably the deep one running across the bridge of his nose. One part of his hair is white, and falls in his eyes as he thrashes his head to look at all the scientists.

“Calm down, Katsuo. We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you,” Commander Stevens says, dressed in a hazmat suit like the other two with him.

“You have to listen to me! They destroy worlds! Aliens are coming!” Katsuo yells, head whipping between the scientists around him.

“Katsuo Tanaka! That’s him! He’s not dead!” Al says.

“But where's the rest of the crew?” Rose asks.

“Do you know how long you've been gone?” Stevens asks Katsuo.

“I don't know. Months? Years?” Katsuo says, hysterical. “Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They’re probably on their way. They’ll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!”

“Voltron?” Rose asks. That raises too many questions in Al’s mind. A technician standing on Katsuo’s right starts speaking.

“Sir, take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic,” he says, and Al sees it, a metal arm that Katsuo seems to be in full control of, as the metal fingers stressfully ball into a fist just as much as the flesh ones.

“Put him under until we know what that thing can do,” Stevens orders, and the technician moves to grab a syringe off a table at the edge of the tent.

“Don’t, don't put me under!” Katsuo grows more pleading as the technician gets closer. “No! No, there's no time! Let me go!” His pleads fall on deaf ears, and he’s soon unconscious.

“They didn't ask about the rest of the crew,” Rose says, concerned.

“What are they doing? The guy's a legend. They’re not even gonna listen to him?” Al asks.

“We have to get him out,” Rose decides.

“But how? There’s no way to get past the guards,” Sefa asks.

“We’ve just got to think,” Al says, a hand under their chin in thought. “Could we tunnel in?”

“Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs,” Rose suggests.

Al thinks for a moment, then decides, “No, what we need is a distraction.”

At that moment, explosions burst in the distance, lighting up the dark terrain with warm color. Everyone jumps at the loud, booming noise.

“Is that the aliens?! Are— tha— the— is that the aliens?! Are they here?! They got here so quick!” Sefa stutters, somehow exactly replicating the thoughts swirling in Al’s head.

“No. Those were a distraction, for them!” Rose points to other side of the crash site, to a figure on a bike, zooming towards the tent. Rose is using her binoculars to see who it is, and Al’s takes them to see for themself.

With one look, they can see exactly who it is.  _ That asshole. _

“The officers are headed towards the blast, and they’re sneaking in from the other side!” Rose says.

“No way...!” Al says, dropping the binoculars and standing. “Oh, he is not going to beat us in there! That guy is always trying to one-up me!” They start down the hill they’re on. The  _ nerve _ of that guy.

“Who is it?” Sefa call from above, scrambling to follow him.

“Akari!”

“Who?” Rose asks, quickly gathering her computer into her bag.

“Are you sure?” Sefa asks, catching up to them.

“Oh, I’d recognize that mullet anywhere!” Al answers, not slowing their angry pace.

“Akari who?!” Rose calls, reluctantly following them.

<><><>

Akari stands outside the room for just a moment, hyping himself up. He still doesn’t know what’s inside.

“These readings are off the chart,” a man inside comments. Readings for what?

He channels his confusion and nervousness into energy as he opens the door with a woosh.

Three I.S.E.A. officers in hazmat suits look to him. He worries for a moment that the bandana over half of his face won’t be enough for whatever radioactive material is in here, but then sees it’s just a person on a table.

“Hey!” one officer says. The three of them approach him, and he silently gets into a fighting stance, knees bent and fists in front of him.

They still approach, and he swings his fist at the closest one. They stumble back into a table of medical tools and fall over. Akari hits the next one in the same direction, and their collision knocks them both unconscious. He punches the third, sending them spinning. He kicks their back and they fall forward, slamming their chin on the examination table the person is strapped to. They hit the ground, unconscious.

Akari is proud of himself for a moment, until he hears a groan from the person strapped to the table.

He walks to him, and carefully grabs his jaw to turn his head so Akari can see who it is.

He holds back a gasp, and pulls down the bandana. “Katsuo?” he asks softly, pressure behind his eyes.

Katsuo, strapped to a table and unconscious, doesn’t respond. He looks different, hair partially white and a scar across the bridge of his nose. not to mention the robotic prosthetic arm on his right side.

Akari pulls takes a pair of medical scissors off a cart next to the table and cuts the belts off Katsuo, then hoists him up.  _ Ugh _ , he’s heavy.

He starts to walk out, slowly and staggering under the weight of his brother, when—

“Nope! No, you— no no no. No you don’t. I’m saving Katsuo,” a voice says very quickly, like a scolding parent. The owner of the voice is soon on Katsuo’s other side, putting his limp arm over their shoulders like Akari is doing. Trailing behind them, though far less passionate, are two other people. One tall and in a yellow hoodie, the other short and in overalls over a green and white shirt.

“Who are you?” Akari asks, because who thinks they can come in and not let Akari save his own brother?

“Who am I?” the person holding Katsuo sounds offended. “Uh, the name’s  _ Al _ . We were in the same class at the I-Sea.”

Akari quickly tries to see if he remembers this guy. But no Al with curly brown hair and dark skin spotted with vitiligo comes up in his mind. “Really? You an engineer?”

“No, I’m a pilot!” Al says, “We were like rivals. You know, Al and Akari, neck and neck.”

Then it clicks. “Oh wait, I remember you. You’re a cargo pilot.” The guy who always had an insult to everything Akari did.  _ Alejandro Espinosa _ , Al for short.

Al gets mad at that. “Well not anymore. I’m fighter class now, thanks to you washing out.”

“Well, congratulations,” Akari says, voice dry. Really, he needs to save his brother from the Garrison and whatever left him with a metal arm, but instead he’s talking to someone from school he barely recognizes? Ridiculous.

“This is a great reunion and all, but we’re in a room with four unconscious people, including a guy who’s been missing for a year,” the girl says, hands tightening on her backpack straps. “We should go before anyone catches up.” She points to the ceiling over the one in yellow, where a camera watches them.

“Yeah, let’s get going,” he says, and Akira follows him and the girl out with Al and Katsuo. He and Sefa are slow; it’s not like Katsuo’s a feather, and their steps are uncoordinated.

“Which way do we go?” Al asks him once they get out.

“My bike,” Akari says, jutting his head to the red vehicle to the right of the tent. The two strangers scramble onto the back of it as Al gets on in front of them and pulls Katsuo on, holding his unconscious form safely close. Finally, Akari gets on the very front, hands gripping the controls. As he starts the engine, it sputters and coughs before finally turning on.

“Will this hold all of us?” the girl asks.

“No,” Akari replies. He built it for himself, maybe two people.

Everyone quickly gets settled, and surprisingly the bike still works. They begin speeding off, away from the crash site and the I.S.E.A., but the officers are chasing them in cars of their own. And the weight is slowing them down. Why can’t anything go right for him?

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Al asks.

“We could toss out some non-essential weight,” Akari replies snarkily.

“Oh right!” they say, causing Akari to roll his eyes. A moment later: “...Okay, so that was an insult. I get it.”

But at this moment, Akari isn’t really listening, as a sharp turn is coming up. “Everyone, lean left.”

“What?” the girl asks.

“Lean left, now!” Akari snaps, and they do as he says. He feels bad for sounding rude, but a second longer and they would’ve crashed.

Everyone but him lets out a noise of surprise as they turn sharply.

“Oh man, Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery! That’s gonna hurt,” the boy in yellow comments. Welp, Montgomery deserves it.

“Lean right,” Akari says, and the bike turns as the weight shifts.

The ride continues in a forward path for a single silent, blessed moment, until the yellow one is speaking again.

“Guys? Ah-tat-tat-tat, is that a cliff up ahead?”

“Oh, no no no!” Al yells, but Akari smirks and leans into the bike handles.

“Yup.” He speeds over the edge.

Everyone screams as they fall, but Akari focuses on his timing.

“What the hell are you doing!? You’re gonna kill us all!” Al screeches.

“Shut up and trust me!” Akari yells back.

_ Almost, almost… now! _

He pulls on the break, causing the bike to rise up before they could crash. They continue speeding off, to where the officers can’t follow. The ride in silence for a few minutes, Akari turning widely so as to not throw off any passengers. They end up soon at what’s been his home base for the past months.

A shack. That’s pretty much it. It’s dark against the desert landscape, and barely staying together. Inside it’s filled to the brim with everything he owns, which isn’t that much. But it gave him solitude, and wide open spaces, and it’s home.

He parks at the spot he designated for his bike, and he and the others scramble off. Al and Akari resume their initial position with Katsuo, and they all head inside. There is a bare mattress in the corner of the room, and that’s where Katsuo is put, under a slightly stained brown blanket.

“This is where you’ve been this whole time?” Al asks.

“Yeah,” Akari replies bluntly, then looks to the strangers. “I still don’t know who you two are.”

“I’m Rose, and he’s Sefa,” the girl says, dropping her bag on the mattress next to Katsuo’s feet and sticking her hands in her overall pockets.

“Teuila’s brother?,” Sefa says.

It clicks. “Oh, right.” Katsuo’s best friend has a brother Akari’s age.

“I thought you’d remember me,” Sefa says, sitting on the floor next to the mattress. Akari leans against the wall by the door.

“Did we ever even meet?”

“Yeah, once, but still.” Sefa chuckles. A small smile falls on Akari’s lips.

“Well I’m not good with faces. Sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” Sefa waves a hand.

They settle into silence, and Akari can’t read rooms much better than faces, but it’s obviously uncomfortable. He sure is, at least. Rose finishes surveying the room and begins unpacking her backpack. (Is that a homemade computer?) Al is still surveying the room, and Sefa, still on the floor, is watching Katsuo with concern. Akari is watching the three of them, and his brother.

“What do we do now?” Al asks.

“Wait?” Rose answers, unsure. She doesn’t look up from her computer. “Katsuo probably has the most answers.”

“Ugh, fine, but it’ll be— what’s this?” Al’s attention turns to the far wall, where a corkboard holding a map is hanging up.

“Nothing,” Akari answers quickly. Places are circled and noted, with pictures of the area tacked on next to them. His months’ work (besides the bike), right there. But to them, it’s nothing.

Al looks at him for a moment, then turns away, rolling their eyes. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

They fall back into silence again, until—

“What’s Voltron?” Sefa asks the room, still staring at Katsuo curiously.

“What?” Akari asks.

“Voltron. Kat was talking about it before the I-Sea knocked him out. He  _ really _ wants to find it.”

“I got a recording here,” Rose says. She taps a key, and the sound of Katsuo yelling fills the room.

_ “Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They’re probably on their way. They’ll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!” _

“See, Voltron,” Sefa says, finally turning to face the other three.

“Is it the weapon?” Akari asks.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Rose says. “But—”

“What does it do?” Al asks.

“Exactly.”

Akari stares at a spot on the floor, thinking. He doesn’t like the aliens, and is scared of them coming to Earth, and he’s looking for Voltron.

“It either stops them, and we can use it against them, or they can use it, and we should keep it from them.”

“Couldn’t it be both? I mean, a knife could stop someone, but it could also be used by that person,” Sefa says.

“Fair point,” Al mutters. They move to sit on the floor, back against the wall.

Then, a groan. Katsuo, on the mattress, brings a hand to his forehead, the metal glinting in the dawning light.

Rose and Sefa move immediately, standing to give him space. Al rises with them too, and all four of them watch him. Or rather, three. Akari immediately goes closer and kneels by the mattress. He reaches into a minifridge by him (“How long was that there?” Al whisper yells. It was disguised under a mountain of books and clothes, after all.) and pulls out a metal bottle, full of water.

Katsuo’s eyes open, and he turns to his brother. “‘Kari?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He smiles, then holds out the water bottle. “Here.”

Katsuo sits up, or struggles to. Akari puts the bottle down and helps him up.

“Oh, uh,” Katsuo says to the trio, then, “How did you get here?”

“We can talk later. Drink,” Akari says, handing him the bottle.

Katsuo takes it and takes a big sip. Akari asks, “Do you… remember anything?”

“I… I remember being taken. On Kerberos. Then, um, waking up in a… hospital?” The I.S.E.A. tent. Akari nods, and Katsuo continues. “They knocked me out, then I woke up here. Where are we?”

“Earth,” Akari replies. Katsuo gives him a look that says  _ thanks genius _ . Akari shrugs, the ghost of a smile on his face.

“How do you feel?” Rose asks, voice quiet. She is watching him with a wild mix of curiosity and worry. Like she’d dissect him if she could, but politely.

Katsuo looks to the three of them again, as if remembering they’re there. “Confused mostly.” He looks down to the bottle, carefully choosing his words. “…I think I should step outside.”

“Right,” Akari says. He takes the bottle out of his brother’s hands and helps him stand and walk out the door.

By the time they reach the top of the hill, Katsuo can walk without help. He stops, breath hitched, at the sight of the sunrise.

“It’s been a while, huh?” Akari asks.

“No shit,” Katsuo breathes, not taking his eyes off the horizon.

Akari laughs. “You never changed.”

“Oh yeah, because I’ve always had this,” Katsuo says, turning his head and showing Akari his prosthetic.

“You know what I mean,” Akari says, bumping Katsuo’s shoulder with his fist.

Katsuo smiles, then looks at his arm, and the smile falls. “…I don’t even remember this…. I’m not sure I want to.”

“That’s fine. As long as you’re home.”

“What happened while I was gone? How long have I been gone?”

“You’ve been gone a year. The I-Sea said you died on Kerberos along with the Simmons.”

Katsuo’s face lit up in shocked memory. “Oh God, the Simmons. I totally forgot. And Rose is right there.”

“She’s fine, don’t worry.”

“But where are the Simmons?”

“What makes you think I know? Look, we can worry about other people later.” Akari puts a hand on Katsuo’s shoulder, getting his attention. “Right now, we have to worry about us.”

Katsuo took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes. “Right. Right.” He brought his hands down, and Akari let go of him.

“So, Rose is in there, and so is Sefa…. Who’s that other one?”

“Al. Sefa’s best friend.” Akari rarely saw one without the other in the I.S.E.A., even though he rarely saw either, period.

“And how did you find me?”

“That’s a bit of a story, let’s head back,” Akari says, beginning to make his way to the shack again. Katsuo kept up with him.

“I found… something, and was trying to analyze it,” Akari says, “I went on my bike to clear my head, and there you were.”

“And the others?”

“In the right place at the right time, I guess.” Akari opens the door and steps in first, holding it open for Katsuo. The other three were sitting on the mattress, their conversation stopping as the brothers walked in.

Akari crosses the room and pulls a dusty sheet off his wall to reveal a big cork board with a map of the surrounding area littered with drawings, photos, and notes. The others are surprised; Sefa  _ ooh’s _ softly, Al stares at it, and Rose’s eyes widened as she instantly began inspecting it, trying to read the messily-written notes.

Katsuo speaks up first. “What  _ is _ all this?”

He doesn’t seem to notice how nervous he makes Al with just his presence, and Al doesn’t seem to know how obvious it is to Akari. Then again, it is a regular thing for him, seeing as he is “ _ the _ Katsuo Tanaka”, legendary pilot, astronaut, and I.S.E.A. teacher respected and admired by anyone remotely interested in space travel. Akari just sees him as his lame brother.

“I can't explain it, really,” Akari says, looking back at the board in thought. “After getting booted from the I-Sea, I was kinda… lost, and… felt myself drawn back out here. Like something was telling me to.”

“Why?” Al asks, crossing their arms.

“Well, I didn't really know at the time… until I stumbled across this area,” Akari points to a spot on the map, circled and dotted with notes. “It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. I’ve been researching what they could be, but I didn’t find anything.”

“And how did you find me?” Katsuo asks.

“I saw the crash, and the I-Sea scientists, who told me you were dead when you’re clearly not, so I assumed whatever they were doing was crap too.” 

“Meanwhile, I was trying to pick up radio waves from, I’m guessing, the ones who kidnapped you. These two—” Rose sticks a thumb to Al and Sefa. “— snuck out right as you were crashing.”

“Then we saw Akari come busting in like a hotshot and he helped me save you,” Al adds.

“ _ I _ didn’t help  _ you _ . You didn’t even know he was there,” Akari interjects.

“Neither did you.”

“At least I knew something was happening.”

“At least we didn’t  _ blow stuff up _ .”

“At least I don’t try to take credit for things I  _ didn’t do _ .”

“ _ I guess _ ,” Katsuo interrupted, effectively stopping the argument. “I should thank you all for saving me.”

He turns to Al and reaches his hand out for them to shake. And Al pauses for a moment, for two reasons. One, this is motherfucking  _ Katsuo Tanaka _ thanking  _ them _ — a regular I.S.E.A. student— for being in the right place at the right time. Two, that’s an alien prosthetic hand. Who knows what it can do.

Al sucks in a breath, and shakes the man's hand. The metal’s cold.

“Did anyone else from your crew make it out?” Rose asks, and everyone looks at her with hidden sympathy. It’s her family, after all.

“I'm not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just bits and pieces,” Katsuo says, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Rose says simply, voice quiet. She looks off to the side, disliking the attention on her.

“Sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens,” Sefa says, “Where are they now? Are— are they coming? Like where are they at this very moment?”

“I can't really put it together, Katsuo explains, “I… I remember the word ‘Voltron’. It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.”

“Voltron?” Rose asks, looking at Katsuo, now more curious than uncomfortable. “What kinda name is that?”

“We should find it,” Al suggests.

“Is it even on this planet?” Sefa asks.

“We could at least start here,” Rose says, “At least look before we—”

“Wait,” Akari interrupts, and Al sees him facing the corkboard. “The caves. We can look there.”

<><><>

Midday finds the group in the area Akari said has the caves. He leads, with Katsuo at his side. They talk to each other is quiet voices so that the other three— all a good distance away— can’t hear them.

Well, privacy isn't the only reason they’re lagging. They keep chatting about what the hell Voltron could exactly be, and what it could mean for Earth’s knowledge of space as a whole. They walk pretty slowly when so deep in their theories. Al keeps noticing them lagging, then getting the other two to catch up with them.

Besides that, Al has been spending this time wondering just what Voltron is. Their favorite theory so far is that Voltron might be a real person, somehow, while simultaneously being a weapon. This is definitely their love of suspenseful action movies talking, but it certainly isn’t helped by the fact that the aliens that kidnapped Katsuo and  _ left him without an arm _ want it so badly. Either way, they’re unnerved by the thought of an alien weapon, and that a group of inexperienced humans is finding it. But also a bit excited.

“But how can it be a person? By what Katsuo said, it doesn’t sound like one.”

“Rose, this is aliens we’re talking about. Anything is possible,” Sefa says.

“What if they’re some spirit trapped in a weapon?” Al ponders.

“Or a god or something?” Sefa adds excitedly.

“You two watch too many movies,” Rose says.

Al’s reply is cut off as they notice Katsuo and Akari ahead, turning into a cave. They nudge Sefa and Rose, and the three of them hurry ahead.

The cave looks normal, open and dark, but through the shadows Al can see there’s more beyond what they see. They walk in, and eventually turn to Akari for answers.

“What?” he asks.

“You were the one who suggested this. What’s in here?” Rose asks.

“I don’t know,” Akari says defensively, “I just know that this cave has weird carvings.” Said carvings surround them on the walls, kind of low to the ground. Rose pulls out her phone and takes pictures, making Akari uncomfortable with the flash near his face.

“Let’s at least look further in,” Katsuo suggests.

“We learn about aliens, and that their superweapon is possibly in this cave, and you want to go in it?” Sefa asks.

“What else should we do?”

“Get professionals to do it? Alert the government?”

“Fuck the government,” Rose replies simply.

“Watch your language,” Katsuo tells her.

“The government just strapped you to a table and knocked you unconscious then chased us when we saved you. They can kiss my ass.” Rose crosses her arms and gives Katsuo a flat look.

“Let’s at least look around. If we find anything, we can get someone else,” Akari says.

“Yeah, cave exploration!” Al pumps their fist and follows the rest in.

Rose pulls a flashlight out of her bag, and hands it to Katsuo, who leads. He turns it on, and light illuminates the cave. It’s a sort of hallway, narrow walls leading them forward.

They walk for a while, and soon fall back into the previous setup, with Katsuo and Akari at the front, and the trio in the back, two separate conversations.

“So, what will the aliens look like?” Al asks.

“Maybe that classic green skin and big heads thing,” Sefa offers.

“Ooh, that’d be funny,” Al says, “We were right the whole time.”

“Or what if they’re just totally different, like different physics and everything. And they think we’re stupid for breathing oxygen,” Sefa says with a chuckle.

“If I get murdered in a cave I’m gonna be pissed,” Rose mutters, in her own head.

Al and Sefa burst into laughter at the suddenness of it. “What!?” Al gasps.

“That’s not a cool way to die, if I have to die it’s gonna be cool, or at least fucking funny, like being hit by a blimp or something,” Rose continues, serious.

“How would you even be hit by a blimp? They’re so high in the air, and go so slow?” Sefa asks, immediately confused, while Al keeps laughing.

“Exactly. Confuse everyone, even in death,” Rose says, finally cracking a smile.

This draws a fresh peal of laughter from Al, who leans on Sefa, wiping away tears.

“What’s so funny?” Akari asks from further down the tunnel, light flashing on them.

“Nothing,” Al says as Rose says, “Blimps.”

“…Okay?” Akari says, then continues down the cave, taking the sharp left turn.

The trio follows them, but once Al reaches the wall before the turn, they stop, watching it with furrowed eyebrows.

“What is it?” Rose asks. Everyone else turns to watch them, and Katsuo’s flashlight shines in their face.

“Turn the light off,” they say, not taking their eyes off the rock.

“What?”

“Just turn it off.”

The light turns off with a click, and in the darkness Al can see it more clearly.

Around the edge of the wall, in a big imperfect shape, is light. Shining through from the other side, meaning there’s something through there.

“Woah.” Rose joins Al on their left, grinning at the light.

“How’d you see that?” Sefa says, standing on their other side.

Al shrugs, making an “I don’t know” noise.

“How do we get in?” Rose asks as the brothers join the three of them.

“Maybe just, blunt force?” Sefa suggests. “If light can get through, then it can’t be that connected to the walls.”

“Right,” Al says, then places both hands on the rock. They push on it, and it nudges, but only slightly. They add more force, but it doesn’t move. They pull back with a huff.

“It won’t budge.”

“What if we used our combined strength?” Sefa suggests.

“If Disney movies taught me anything, it’s that good ol’ fashioned teamwork can do anything,” Al says with a smile. Teamwork, and knowing Sefa has picked up Al like a sack of potatoes on multiple occasions that he might be able to open it himself. And who knows how strong Katsuo’s prosthetic is.

“Worth a shot,” Rose says as she and everyone else step forward next to Al, placing hands on the stone.

“On three,” Katsuo says, “One… two…  _ three _ .”

The five of them push against it, and the rock reluctantly moves from one side, swinging open like a door. It stops against the perpendicular wall, allowing the group to see what’s inside.

Circular walls greet them, illuminated by top of the cave, where a hole to the sky is. Something clearly crashed through, and that thing sits in the middle of the otherwise ordinary space.

A ship of sorts, with sleek edges and a strange purple and black design that looks alien. It‘s small for a ship, but still very big, taking up a lot of space in the cave. It is dented from the crash, but other than that looks operational. That thought alone has Al staring at it in wonder.

“Is this it? The Voltron?” Rose asks.

“It must be,” Al says.

“This is what's been causing all this crazy energy out here,” Akari says.

“How did it even get here?” Sefa asks.

“I don’t know, but I’m checking it out,” Al says, going ahead and inspecting the ship closer.

“Al, don’t,” Sefa says, following them, but Al already pried open the door to it and is stepping inside. The others have no choice but to follow them.

Chuckling, Al settles into the pilot’s seat at the front of the ship. It has a dark interior, lit only by the light from the open door in the back of the ship. There are panels on the floor and walls, indicating that there is something there, but Al has no idea what. They instead focus on the cockpit of the ship, which is actually closer to a jet once they think about it. It has a single tall, dark seat in front of a control panel taking up the whole dashboard. The windshield is nothing but black— maybe a cover over the real shield?

Either way, the ship has Al’s full interest. They giddily sit in the seat like a child sneaking around their parent’s office as the others file in through the door to stand behind the seat.

“Don’t sit there,” Akari immediately says, “You have no idea what this could do.”

“Neither do you! This could be harmless without alien DNA or something,” Al replies. Akari opens to mouth to respond, but closes it after a second, choosing instead to scowl at them. They glare back.

“There’s no controls,” Rose points out. Al looks on the dashboard to see that, indeed, there are many buttons and switches, but no control sticks.

Al sweeps their feet around the space in front of the seat. “No pedals either.”

“Then how do the aliens fly this?” Sefa asks. “Or, did.”

“I have no idea,” Al mumbles, one hand to their chin in thought, the other experimentally poking a few buttons.

“I don’t think you should be do—  _ uh _ !” Katsuo is cut off when one of the buttons Al pressed activates the jet. Purple lights lining the perimeter of the ceiling and floor blink to life, as well as the dashboard’s controls. As Al predicted, the windshield’s screen disappears to reveal the cave surrounding it.

“Woah,” Al breathes.

A screen blinks onto the windshield, and a voice says something in an alien language.

“Voice activation, of course!” Rose says.

“Uh,” Sefa says, before leaning past Al’s shoulder to the screen. “Do you know anything about Voltron?”

The screen spoke again, and Al could hear the word  _ Voltron _ repeated in a questioning tone.

“Yeah, Voltron,” Al says. The ship rumbles, and Al realizes what they did. “Whoops.”

“No! Go back!” Sefa pleads to the jet, but it’s screen has disappeared, already rising off the ground and through the hole in the ceiling. It rises further, and speeds up, shooting through the sky and past the clouds.

“Are we leaving the atmosphere?” Rose asks.

Yes, they are. It’s shaky, so shaky that Al feels four pairs of hands grip onto their seat to stay stable. But it’s over as soon as it began, thanks to the jet’s speed, and they all let go.

“Oh no,” Sefa says, dragging out the vowels. “We’re in space.”

“Can’t you turn it around?” Akari asks Al.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you’re the one in the seat.”

“This is all voice activated! I’m not driving!”

“Then tell it to stop!”

“If you know what to do so much, then YOU fly it!”

“Both of you, quit it!”

Everyone turns to Katsuo, his voice the harshest they heard since he crashed.

“Nothing is going to get solved with fighting,” he continues, switching between sending Al and Akari stern looks. “There’s no way to go back right now, so we have to work together and get through this until we can get back.” His tone is final, so the others have no choice but to follow his order. “Now,” he says, more calmly, “Where could this ship be going?”

“Well, it seems to be voice activated, and responded to the word ‘Voltron’, so I’m guessing it’s taking us to the Voltron,” Rose says.

“We’re going right to the super-weapon that hostile aliens are looking for? Sounds safe,” Al says.

“Maybe it’s not that bad. I mean, these are the bad guys, right?” Akari asks. “Shouldn’t us reaching a weapon before them be good?”

Al hums, thinking about it. “That… does make sense. Never thought you’d come up with a good idea, but then again, I never thought I’d be launched into space by an alien jet.”

Akari rolls his eyes, but says nothing.

“Okay, so, when we get there, should we just turn around and leave?” Sefa asks. “I mean, Earth isn’t a threat to these guys. They’re so much more advanced than us.”

“The Golvia won’t just leave us alone if they find out about this,” Katsuo says, “They conquer galaxies, killing anything that even comes close to resisting.”

Everyone looks at him, then Sefa, who, embarrassed, says, “Oh. Nevermind then.”

“Let’s see what happens, at the least,” Rose says, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“We could all die,” Akari says flatly.

“Dude, chill out, Rose is right,” Al says, “We all want to explore space. Isn’t that why we were all at the I-Sea?”

Akari, reluctantly, doesn’t deny that statement. Al smirks in victory, and says to everyone, “The point is, we can’t do anything about this, so we might as well enjoy it while we can.”

Rose nods in agreement. “I don’t think anything that big could happen in a little jet like this.”

She’s right. Compared to the I.S.E.A.’s ships made for long term travel, this thing is tiny.  _ Even for an advanced alien race, _ Al thinks,  _ this thing couldn’t go too far. _

“You’re not even the least bit worried?” Akari asks, giving them a bewildered look. Outside the windshield, stars fly by so quickly they are just blurs. The jet isn’t slowing down any time soon, but it’s flying smoothly enough for everyone to maintain stability.

“Of course I am, but we—” They point between them and Rose. “—know how to chill. So chill out, or get out.”

Rose offers them a fist bump, which they reciprocate enthusiastically.

“We’ll worry when we get there,” they add.

Akari sighs and rolls his eyes, stepping away to look at another corner of the jet, and Katsuo follows. Sefa checks out the dashboard of buttons, leaving Al and Rose together.

“What do you think the aliens look like?” she asks.

“They better look cool or I’m turning this ship around.”

Rose chuckles, moving to sit with her back against the dashboard. She pulls off her backpack and holds it in her lap. “It better not be like in movies where they just look like humans painted green.”

“Oh yeah. They have to have at least more than two arms, or I’m out.” They stick a thumb over their shoulder.

“And cool clothes,” Rose continues.

“And a real culture.”

“And a nice spaceship.”

“What about super weird names? Like Dorp or Flax or something?”

“Or E.T.”

Al laughs, then the two fall into a comfortable silence, both thinking about aliens.

“...You think they’d be open to dating humans?” Al asks. Rose sputters and laughs.

“I’d sure hope so,” she says, “I’d love an alien girlfriend.”

“Same,” Al says with a chuckle.

“Make that three,” Sefa mumbles from where he’s inspecting a panel around the dashboard.

Al laughs and leaves the chair to squat next to him, leaning their shoulder against his. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

“Trying to read this.” Sefa points to the panel, where words— most likely instructions— are printed in the Golvia language, strange sharp symbols forming words and sentences.

“Dude, you can’t read that,” Al says with an exasperated chuckle.

“I can try,” Sefa mumbles.

Al rolls their eyes in amusement. “It’s probably just a warning label.”

“Still. Need something to curb the boredom,” Sefa says, reaching out to trace his fingers over the lettering.

“How about we theorize what they’re doing?” Rose asks, voice lowered, giving a subtle nod to the brothers from where she sat, now in the pilot’s seat.

“They haven’t seen each other in a year, they’re probably catching up,” Al says, dropping their voice to a whisper as well.

“Or Kat is lecturing Akari for dropping out,” Sefa says.

“Didn’t that happen after he went missing?” Rose asks.

“Wouldn’t he tell him that happened?” Al asks.

Sefa laughs, a sharp breath out his nose. “I wouldn’t if I were him.”

“Right, you knew Kat when you were younger,” Rose says.

“Yeah,” Sefa says, turning away from the panel to face Rose. “Well, my sister did. But he was over enough for me to know him.”

He leans against the wall perpendicular to the dashboard, and Al leans against him as they say, “Then wouldn’t he wanna catch up with you too?”

“Maybe later. I’m not his brother, y’know?”

“Still important. You’re his best friend’s brother.”

“Love that song,” Al says, making the other two laugh.

“Do you think the aliens have Victorious music?” Rose asks.

“They better,” Sefa says.

“That and iCarly,” Al says, “You remember that one episode where—”

The ship is speaking again, just a quick, calmly stated message.

“What did it say?” Al says.

“‘You have reached your destination’,” Rose says, with the same feminine, robotic voice of a G.P.S. She’s staring out the window, and the brothers, coming to stand behind her, mimicked her. The only difference is Rose has a gleeful smile on her face, while the brothers are in plain shock.

Al and Sefa quickly stand to see what they see, and Al’s face mirrors Rose’s.

The jet slowly moves towards a planet, green and blue like Earth, but when they enter the atmosphere there is a fuzzy quality to everything that Earth doesn’t have. The center of attention, though, is the castle.

Horizontal, long, ovular in shape, and all in a strange color. It’s reflective, like a mirror, almost. Somehow simultaneously it’s like a prism, creating a rainbow aura on the ground around it. Towards the back of the castle are four spires, branching out like four corners of a rectangle. The bottom two spires are buried under the dirt of the flat-top mountain the building rests on. They all reach towards the front of the castle and stop halfway there. The front of the castle tapers up to a point, as do the spires.

Al whistles lowly. “Woah….”

“Alien castle, alien castle, alien castle!” Rose chants, increasing in volume and excitement.

“Am I the only one that’s uncomfortable?” Akari asks.

“Shut up and have some fun, Tanaka,” Al says, as the jet finally lands in the courtyard of the castle. They are the first to head out of the jet, happily marveling at the giant, solid door from the ground. The others followed after them, staring at the terrain and planet as well as the castle.

“Wow,” Akari breathes.

“This… is way better than school,” Al says simply.

“Keep your guard up,” Katsuo warns.

“Something wrong?” Rose asks. She looks around for the danger she doesn’t see.

“My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again,” Katsuo says.

<><><>

Consciousness returns as quickly as it left, but this time is joined by a chill. Roxen can feel the glass disappearing, and she stumbles out of the casket without opening her eyes. She opens her eyes as she regains her balance, lets warmth return to her— all the way to the tips of all twenty fingers.

To find an empty stasis room. Nothing there besides the control panel displaying a message. Taking a cursory look around, there are two more stasis chambers, glass frosted over to keep the bodies inside asleep and maintaining homeostasis.

The panic of what she fell asleep to dissipates, but only slightly. What happened? It’s peaceful— or seems to be— yet no one is there to wake them up. The ship did it, because of a threat; one major enough to wake her up, yet minor enough to keep the alarms off. Confusion runs through her body, and she takes a deep breath to calm it.

She’ll wake the others up first. Stepping to the chamber closest to hers, she places a hand on the glass. A user interface pops up, and she taps a few buttons, then steps back.

The glass sparkles away, and the fog spills out, quickly disappearing. Her sister has a similar reaction to waking up.

“Father!” she gasps, falling out. Roxen catches her before her face hits the floor, and helps her regain balance. Fala immediately looks at her with confusion and panic.

“What happened? Where’s Father?” she asks, and Roxen buries her own panic to soothe her sister.

“I… don’t know. There’s a threat—” she gestures to the control panel. “— but I wanted to wake you and Sahdiil first.”

“Right… that makes sense.” Fala looks at the floor in thought, then stands on her own, Roxen letting her arms fall to her sides.

Fala watches from where she stands as Roxen opens Sahdiil’s pod. They jump out, punctual as usual, but they land wobbly.

“Oop! Looks like I have the ol’ sleep chamber knees again,” they say brightly, taking Roxen’s outstretched hand to balance on with a nod of thanks.

“We have a bit of a problem,” Fala says. Sahdiil’s expression turns more serious, silently asking one of them to continue.

“We don’t know where Father is, or what’s happening at all, and there’s a minor threat outside the castle,” Roxen says.

Sahdiil hums, thinking. Then, “Let’s investigate the threat first.”

Fala and Roxen nod. The three of them crowd around the control panel, with Sahdiil in the middle, tapping at the keyboard and pulling up the live feed of the castle’s security cameras.

“What…?” Fala says immediately at the sight, and Roxen can’t help but agree. What, indeed.

It’s a Golvia fighter jet, but there are no Golvia, only five… well, Roxen doesn’t know what they are. They look a bit like Polluxians, with less arms, and eyes, and… tiny, weird ears. They don’t look threatening, just confused, walking around the area and talking to each other. She doesn’t blame them, they really are out of place.

“What should we do?” Roxen asks.

Fala sounds confused. “What? No, not that,  _ them _ .”

Roxen turns her head to see Fala looking back at the pod that she was in. Crawling out of it were four small, pastel, fuzzy mice.

“Oh my stars,” Sahdiil breaths, “They must’ve snuck into the pod with you.” Of course,  _ of course _ Fala’s pet mice came with them to this strange situation.

Fala brightens a bit and meets them halfway across the room, crouching to pick them up in her cupped hands.

“I guess we aren’t totally alone,” she says, walking back to the control panel. She moves one hand to rub the head of one of them, who squeaks and nuzzles into it. Once she reaches Roxen and Sahdiil, she moves her hands to her shoulder, where the mice climb onto her and rest by her neck.

“Now, what were you sayi— oh.” Fala finally took notice of the newcomers. “What  _ should _ we do?”

Roxen looks at the screen, and makes up her mind. “I’m going to talk to them,” she says, backing up.

“What?” Fala and Sahdiil ask in unison, appalled at the thought.

Roxen ignores the, fixing any rumbles on her suit, and crosses the room to grab a translator off a shelf. They probably won’t understand Polluxian. “They’re not the threat the castle picked up, the ship is. And there are no Golvia. If they want to fight, you can watch, and use the castle’s defences.” She takes the two discs, both fitting on the tip of one thumb each. She reaches these thumbs into her mouth to press the devices against her backmost teeth.

“But what if something happens to you?” Fala asks as Roxen grabs another set of translators, this time going behind her ears, just behind the lobes. 

“I doubt anything will happen. Besides, I’d rather it be me than either of you,” Roxen says, “You figure out what happened with the Golvia and Father.”

With that, she left. Through the halls, down the stairs, all the way to the entrance, where the strangers stand on the other side. She takes a deep breath and adjusts her suit again.

Be kind, but firm. Be in charge, but not intimidating. Learn what they know and don’t show your emotions, but don’t be emotionless. Okay. Okay, she can do this. Forget about Father, and deal with these almost-Polluxians. Easier said than done, but not impossible.

She wraps two hands around each handle, and pulls the heavy door open. She stops them after her arms extend fully, and holds the doors there. She takes in each of the newcomers, all looking at her with confusion and shock.

They all differ in height, shape, size and skin tones. They all have two eyes and arms each, with small ears that, upon closer inspection, are rounded. And no pruvia on their faces, like on Polluxians. They just have blank faces devoid of any hint to their qualezi. All so weird, considering they look a lot like Polluxians.

But appearances in comparison to Polluxians are besides the point. None of them look threatening except for one; tall and muscular with multicolored hair, an impressive scar, and a bionic arm. But she could take him if he is threatening. Probably.

The strangest thing, however, is their qualezii. Their very prominent, clear qualezii. Each one clearly stands out, as if written on their foreheads. Black, red, green, blue, and yellow. No pruvia to tell her, but she can sense it, even without deliberately searching for it.

“Who are you?” she asks, in unison with the one with blue qualezi, who is tall and lanky.

“I am Princess Roxenuq’istle of Pollux. What are you doing at my castle?” she asks, voice full of authority, hoping it will make her look braver. Luckily, it worked, judging by how all of their eyebrows raise.

“Princess say what?” the blue one asks.

“You can call me Roxen.”

“This is your castle?” the one with the prosthetic asks. Black qualezi.

“Yes,” Roxen says. “Who are you, and why do you have a Golvia ship?”

“We… don’t really know what happened. It brought us here,” the blue one says.

“Brought you here?” Roxen asks.

“Well, it’s voice activated, and we don’t speak the language, so we accidentally told it to come here,” the short one with qualezi matching the green bandana over her hairline says, “We asked about Voltron, and now we’re here.”

“Voltron…?”

“Yeah, do you know what it is? Or… who?” The big one with yellow qualezi asks.

So these people don’t know anything about Voltron, yet requested to see it in the Golvia ship. And they don’t know Golvia. Now Roxen is curious. “We can talk about Voltron later. Right now, I need to clear all this confusion. Come with me,” she says, then adds, “Please.” Can’t forget being polite. She steps aside and gestures for them to step inside, which they do, looking around the entrance hall, the short one looking particularly awestruck.

“Woah…” the one with shoulder-length black hair and red qualezi breathes. The blue one whistles lowly.

“So, what is this place called?” the green one asks.

“The Polluxian Interstellar Castle,” Roxen answers, walking to the center of the hall, where a circle is etched into the floor. She guides the others to stand with her in it, and a light from above scans over all of them, startling everyone but Roxen. From the center of the floor rises a podium containing five small discs.

“What are these?” the green one asks, stepping closer. She’s curious, unsurprisingly.

“Translators. Once you wear them, they will translate any language you hear into one you will understand.” Roxen picks one up and hands it to the girl, who takes it nervously.

“How do I put it on?” she asks, flipping it over in her hand. She focuses on the black dot in the center of the white circle.

“Press the button,” Roxen says simply. The girl hesitantly presses the button, and jumps a little as the small device— that could easily fit on the tip of her finger— splits into two and zips up her arms to her shoulders to nestle behind her earlobes.

The girl immediately feels behind her ears, in awe. The others’ home planet must have different translators, or none at all. “Woah, does this really work?”

The blue one leans into her field of vision and asks, “Do you understand Spanish?” Roxen assumes he’s speaking Spanish. Their home planet must have multiple languages, which would make no translators terribly inconvenient.

“I do now!” the green girl says enthusiastically, smiling at the blue one. The other three look at the two of them with a mix of amusement and shock.

The blue one is the next one to take a translator, letting them zip up to their ears as well. The other three follow them. Roxen lets herself relax a small bit. They don’t seem malicious, and every passing moment makes them seem less so. A friendly smile replaces her dutifully neutral features as the green girl asks her a question.

“But wait, how were we able to understand you before?”

“There are two types of Polluxian translators. One translates what you hear, one translates what you say. I have both, so I can understand you, and you can understand me.”

“Cool,” the girl breathes, a sparkle in her eyes. Oh she has green qualezi alright.

“How does that work?” she continues, speeding up with her questions. “No aliens have ever been to Earth, so how do the translators understand Earthan languages? How—”

“I will answer all of that and more once we get to the bridge,” Roxen says with a chuckle. “My sister, advisor and I have been in stasis for some time, and they’re figuring out what happened during that time. It’s safe to say we’re all a bit lost.”

“It’s just the three of you?” the one with black qualezi asks.

“Yes.” Roxen assumes it’s safe to tell them that. Probably. “Either way, let’s go to the bridge.”

“But what about that ship?” the yellow one asks.

“I’ll dispose of that later,” Roxen answers, starting to lead the others up one of the two long staircases winding up to a balcony overlooking the hall. From there they go through a door, and begin walking down the hallway to the bridge.

Four of them trail behind her in quiet conversation, but the green one is a bit closer, and she can see her studying her, trying to be inconspicuous. Roxen doesn’t mind, she is curious as well. After all, she still doesn’t know these five.

“I never did get your names,” Roxen says, looking down at the short girl curiously. The two of them had been walking in silence, with Roxen staring ahead and walking down this long hallway, past dark floors and light walls with identical black doors and small, brightly-colored sculpted figures on pedestals. The others stopped their quiet conversation once she spoke up.

“I’m Rose, and they’re Al, Sefa, Akari, and Kat,” Rose says eagerly, gesturing to the ones with blue, yellow, red, and black qualezi respectively. They nod and, in Al’s case, wave with a friendly smile.

Roxen nods, thoughtful. They reach the end of the hallway, and the doors open automatically through the censor. Roxen steps inside, Rose and the others following. The bridge is inside, a giant room with half of it lowered down a small set of stairs on either side of the room, similar to the first room. In the center, a podium stands under the huge crystal allowing the castle to fly.

“Wait here while I get my sister and advisor,” Roxen says before turning around and leaving them alone. The walk back to the stasis bay is even quieter, and she is glad for time to think.

The blue and green ones— Al and Rose— told her that they accidentally made a Golvia ship take them there in their curiosity about Voltron. So, they’re unfamiliar with Golvia, yet know about Voltron? How? If they know about Voltron, they must know about Golvia. It’s all so strange.

When she reaches the stasis bay, she is met with Fala with her arms wrapped around Sahdiil’s shoulders, sobbing so much her shoulders are shaking violently with each one. Sahdiil is facing Roxen, and they give her a sad, sympathetic look once they see her. It’s all an unexpected sight to say the least.

“What happened?” she asks, breaking the rhythm of Fala’s sobs with her quietly fearful voice. What happened to make her cry so much in the span of time Roxen’s been gone?

Fala sniffs and stands, bringing a hand up to wipe away her tears. She turns to face Roxen with puffy eyes. “We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years.”

What.

“Pollux and it’s star system is gone.”

No. Roxen stares at the floor so she doesn’t have to see they’re faces.

Fala’s breath hitches. “We’re the only Polluxians alive. Everyone is— they’re gone. All of them.”

Roxen freezes for a moment, then screws her eyes shut and sucks in a breath. “Even…?”

There’s more silence. A sniff, then: “Yes. Him too.”

She wants to cry. To scream and sob and curse the goddesses for doing this to her, to beg for an explanation, but she can’t. Not when Fala needs a stable presence, and five lost and confused Earthens need guidance.

Roxen exhales, opens her now-wet eyes, and raises her head. Fala and Sahdiil look at her, sad and understanding. Fala inhales, exhales, and one more tear carves a wet path down her face.

“Now isn’t the time,” Roxen says quietly, sniffing. “The others— these  _ Earthens _ — they need us right now.”

“Right,” Fala says, seeming to just remember them. “What did they say?”

“They have no idea how they got here, or what’s happening, but they heard about Voltron, and the ship’s voice activation brought them here.”

“Strange,” Sahdiil says. Roxen nods.

“We should talk to them,” Fala says, “Maybe get them to their planet.”

“Maybe,” Roxen says. While it would be ideal to get these confused Earthens home so she can focus on the state of her planet, something inside her is telling her that they’re here for a reason. But why?

<><><>

Okay. Okay, an alien woman— nay,  _ princess _ — led Rose and her friends through her castle. It’s called the Polluxian Interstellar Castle, which makes Rose think (and hope, if she’s being honest) that this thing can fly. The technological genius that this place has is nothing short of awe-inspiring to Rose, and she knows she’s only seen a small amount of it all.

Add that to this giant bridge she and the others are waiting in, with its giant crystal and futuristic design, and Rose’s fascination with technology is in heaven. And that doesn’t even mention the  _ design _ of this castle.

The structure seems to be made of marble, or the Polluxian equivalent of it. The walls are white, with golden cracks running through them. The floors are black with silver cracks, and the doors are the same, save for the absence of any cracks. Everything else is vibrant, as if to contrast the plain structure. The statues, light fixtures, even the plants have bright leaves and sit in well decorated pots. Every staircase she’s seen has accessible ramps and banisters decorated with winding vines made of stone, and the room she’s in now has a large, beautiful crystal in the center, over what looks like the command center. All of it is so beautiful.

She’s looking around the place with wonder, wondering how everything works, even things as simple as the electricity. Do the lights work with circuits and wires like human lights? Maybe they just glow on their own; if so, how does  _ that _ work? And what purpose does that crystal serve?

Other than that, she keeps thinking about the princess’ differences to humans. Of course she couldn’t examine behavior, they just met, but appearance alone was a lot. Besides the obvious— four arms and four eyes— she notices large, pointed ears; the ends of which reach to the back of the princess’ head. The eyes are strange in detail as well, with the colors of the iris and sclera are swapped in color; brown surrounding a ring of white rather than vice versa. And her face has those teal markings, flowing from the bridge of her nose, under her eyes, and up to line her hairline and pool into a small circle at the very top. It reminds Rose of a crown, which she thinks fits because, you know, princess.

What intrigues Rose most is how similar she looks to humans, despite all that. Dark brown skin, even darker curly hair that barely came away from her scalp, a round head similarly proportionate to a torso with arms on the sides of the body, with two legs supporting the body underneath. When Rose imagined aliens as a kid, she was endlessly entertained by the idea that aliens can look like  _ anything _ . Even simple floating heads could be whole life forms, because Earth’s laws of physics and anatomy don’t apply to species not from Earth.

But Roxen and her people— Rose is assuming— look so similar to humans. Rose almost feels disappointed, which is insane. Not everyone gets to meet aliens like this, she should be excited by that alone, and she is, even though not everyone else is.

Speaking of, Rose’s wild flurry of internal questions and analyses is interrupted by a voice from across the room.

“Hello? Space to Rose?” Al asks. They sit on the set of stairs across the room, on the other side of the control hub under the crystal. The others sit with them in a little circle.

“Huh?” She didn’t even notice, but can you blame her?

“I said, ‘What’s going through your head?’ You were zoning out.”

She walks over and sits between Al and Akari. “Just thinking about aliens, you?”

“Same. Weird how she looked human, huh?” Al says.

“Yeah, but they have more than two arms, like you asked.”

“And they’re not green,” Sefa adds.

“They could be,” Rose says, “Humans are diverse like that, why not them?”

“True,” Al says.

“You’re worried about  _ that _ ?” Akari asks.

“As opposed to?” Al retorts.

“Us being in an alien castle on an alien planet, with no way of getting home?” Akari says.

“Jeez, you can’t relax even for a second, can you?”

“This is a serious situation, and I’m acting like it. Not my fault you can’t see past flashing lights and a cool spaceship.”

“So you admit it’s cool,” Al says. Akari groans and rolls his eyes.

“I get that this isn’t the ideal situation,” Katsuo cuts in, “and you’re right: we should be taking it seriously. But Al is also right: we can relax a little.”

Akari deflates a little at his brother’s words, while Al perks up, triumphant. Rose nudges Akari’s side with her elbow.

“Come on,” she says, “Loosen up.”

“I mean, other than the dangerous stuff, isn’t meeting aliens cool?” Sefa asks.

“Yeah!” Al says, peeking up more. They jerk a thumb in Sefa’s direction. “That’s coming from the world’s biggest worrier.”

“Don’t you mean universe’s biggest worrier?” Rose asks. Al, Sefa, and Kat laugh at that, and even Akari gives a small grin.

“Also,” she continues, “anyone else get Black Panther vibes from her accent?”

“Dude!” Al exclaims. “I was trying to figure it out the whole time. Wakanda, of course!”

The princess’s voice was strikingly similar to the movie, it weirded Rose out a bit. Obviously not perfect— that would make Rose question if this was all a strangely detailed dream— but it was very close.

“Great, now I wanna watch Black Panther when I’m so far from Earth,” Sefa says with a sigh, and the group laughs again.

A  _ woosh _ sound directs everyone’s attention to the door behind Rose. In walks Roxen, followed by two other figures; her sister and advisor presumably.

Her sister is over a head shorter than Roxen. Her deep brown hair is in dreadlocks, and reaches to the base of her spine— that is assuming her spine ends the same place as humans’— decorated with pink beads on the ends. Her face markings are unlike Roxen’s; pink and outlining the bottom half of her face, pooling in her chin, rather than teal and crown-like. She wears a floor-length dress, white with pink accents, and four sleeves covering four arms. She has a large figure, elegant and striking. The strangest thing is that four pastel mice are on her shoulders, squeaking quietly every so often.

Her advisor is visibly taller and older than both of the princesses. They have light brown skin, and salmon colored hair that falls just past their shoulders but is pulled back in a loose, low ponytail; the same color as their bushy moustache. Their facial markings are light blue, stretching under their eyes and across their nose— Rose assumes that part is universal for Polluxians— and reaching like a sideways umbrella along the right side of their head. They’re wearing a dark blue suit with light blue accents, and dark blue boots. They have a slender yet muscular figure.

All three of them have somber looks to them, with Roxen looking the least so, though her face is very neutral. She speaks to the humans first, voice devoid of emotion.

“This is my sister, Fala, and our advisor, Sahdiil.” She turns to them. “This is Rose, Al, Sefa, Akari, and Kat.”

Fala nods politely, but her attention is on the podium, and she walks to it, the mice stable and still as she moves. She pulls up holographic screens that make Rose’s eyes pop. “So, that’s how that works.” Fala ignores her statement and continues typing as all the others crowd around her, watching her four hands fly across four small keyboards below a floating blue monitor.

She must have reached the screen she was looking for, because she freezes, fingers in the air mid-type. She breathes in shakily, and Rose looks up to see her brown eyes wet.

“Ten thousand years ago.” Her voice is barely more than a breath, and has the same accent as her sister.

What? Ten thousand years ago? Did something happen then? Rose immediately calculates in her head. That was, what, eight thousand B.C.E? The name Mesopotamia comes to mind. It was the peak of the planet’s human civilization at the time, but it had been for thousands of years. Humans were advanced enough to carve figures out of stone rather than stick figures on walls. But that was about it.

“What?” Roxen asks, shocked. Now Rose feels like she’s missing something.

“What happened then?” Katsuo asks.

“Pollux was destroyed ten thousand years ago.”

Rose’s eyes widen, and she keeps her jaw from falling open. These people’s home planet was destroyed? Ten thousand years ago? And they’re just finding out about all this? She has so many questions.

“What?” Al says, in awe. All the other humans must be following Rose’s train of thought, because they look as shocked and confused as she feels.

“No,” Roxen says immediately, turning away and walking across the room. One pair of hands is on her temples, with the other two arms wrapped around herself. “No, no, that can’t be right.” She turns on her heel and continues pacing.

“Slow down,” Sefa says, “What is happening?”

Roxen looks up at him, at all of them, as if noticing them there for the first time. She casts her eyes down again, and takes a breath in before looking back up.

“We are… just as confused as you.” She sighs again. “Yes, let’s slow down.”

That’s how Rose ends up talking to alien princesses and their advisor over this food goo stuff served on a table that looks way too beautiful to eat food off of. She cautiously pokes at the green substance with her spork (of all things) as Katsuo tells the Polluxians the full story. His mission to Kerberos, his capture, his return to Earth, them finding the pod, and all of them ending up here.

“But, what happened to your planet? Aren’t we on Pollux, if you’re castle is here?” he asks. He’s eaten the least, seeing as he’s been talking, but at least he took a bite; Roxen is pacing still, but behind the chairs opposite from Rose. Fala is sitting at the head of the table, with the mice sitting around her plate and Sahdiil next to her, opposite Katsuo. Next to him is Akari and Rose, with Al and Sefa opposite them.

“No, we are on the planet Canus,” Sahdiil says, looking up from a tablet. “The castle must have flew us to this planet when… when it needed to.” So Rose is right: the castle can fly. She hides a grin behind her next bite.

“What did happen to your planet? If I can ask,” Katsuo asks, finally taking a bite of his food. He looks at it with a confused look at the taste for a split second before returning his neutral gaze to the Polluxians. That skill— and it’s skill, this food tastes  _ weird _ , not to mention texture— is definitely not genetic, as Akari, is trying very hard to keep his face neutral, and isn’t doing it very well. Al and Sefa seem to actually be enjoying it, somehow.

Fala looks down at her food, then back up. “The Golvia were taking over planets, and hurting many people. We tried to stop them, and Emperor Zranviex attacked us. Our father, King Azltrov’arnomch, ordered the three of us to hide in stasis pods for safety. He said that he would wake us up when it was over. Seeing as our planet was destroyed, the castle must have flew us to Canus, and we only woke when the threat alert of the Golvia ship woke us.”

“So, the Golvia haven’t stopped taking over the universe for the past ten thousand years?” Akari asks.

“We have to assume so, if they took you,” Fala says to Katsuo.

“So, what can be done to stop them?” Al asks.

“I do remember the name Voltron, if that helps,” Katsuo adds.

Roxen freezes, and looks up. “Voltron. Yes, Voltron. Of course!”

“What exactly is Voltron, by the way? We never learned,” Sefa adds.

“Voltron is the savior of the universe, destined to save it—”

“—in its time of greatest need!” Fala finishes her sentence.

“It all makes sense now,” Sahdiil says under their breath.

“I’m confused. Is Voltron a person or weapon?” Rose asks.

“All Polluxians learn the story of Voltron as children,” Fala says, as Roxen finally sits down at the other head of the table, next to Sefa and Rose.

“Five sentient robot lions, piloted by five brave heroes called Paladins, that come together to form the legendary savior of the universe, called Voltron.”

“We all thought it was legend until the war, when they were brought back to fight for Pollux.”

“Now, this seems like a time of great need, don’t you?” Sahdiil says.

“So, we need to find these paladins?” Katsuo asks.

“There is not just one set of paladins,” Sahdiil says, “The title is passed on through the years. We need to find new ones.”

“And that might be easier than first thought,” Roxen says, looking at the humans, then Sahdiil and Fala.

It’s silent for a moment, then—

“Wait,  _ us _ ?” Rose asks.

“You want us to be Paladins?” Al asks.

“Who else? There’s five of you, and it’s clear which lion each of you would pilot,” Roxen says.

“It is?” Akari looks skeptical. All of them do, really.

“Yes, your qualezii are very prominent,” Sahdiil answers.

“Our what now?” Al quirks an eyebrow.

“Qualezi is the essence of a person. Polluxians can sense them, and they appear in all kinds of colors to us. You five have the perfect qualezii to be Paladins,” Sahdiil explains, smiling.

So, like a soul? People need specific souls to pilot these lions? That kind of makes sense to Rose. And, ‘all kinds of colors’? “Is this related to your…?” She gestures to her own face, under her eyes.

“Yes! You’re very bright,” Sahdiil says cheerily. “Our pruvia is connected to our qualezi. It allows Polluxians to see the qualezi of others, although it isn’t necessary to see them in general.”

“This biology lesson is wonderful, don’t get me wrong,” Al says, “But you’re gonna gloss over us piloting giant robot lions?”

“I suppose we should explain that,” Fala says timidly. Sahdiil places their tablet on the table, in the middle, and from it a hologram projects out, the dining room lights dimming.

A giant humanoid robot looms over all of them. Gigantic and mighty and everything synonymous with it. The head and torso are black, with a red right arm and green left, and right and left legs that are blue and yellow, respectively. It is made of a sleek metal, and accented with silver and gold metal around the colors.

A thought implements itself into Rose’s brain and it feels so  _ right _ that she doesn’t question it. It’s…

“Voltron.”

“Is a huge, awesome robot!” Sefa finishes. His jaw has dropped, along with everyone else. All ten of their eyes are wide as dinner plates.

“This is what we’re supposed to pilot?” Akari asks, awestruck.

“Yes. Well, not exactly,” Roxen says, and the image shifts at the wave of her hand.

One humanoid robot turns into five lion-like robots. They are all the colors from before, black, red, green, blue, and yellow, but instead all separate. They are all sleek and alien in design, but the black one is the biggest, with the blue and yellow following, and the green and red as the smallest.

“Each if you will pilot one of these, which will join together to form Voltron.”

“Woah,” Sefa whispers.

“Where are they?” Akari asks.

“The Black Lion is in the castle, but the rest are… somewhere else,” Fala says, “We don’t know exactly where.”

“But we can find out. The castle is connected to them,” Roxen says.

And they all end up back at the bridge. Everyone is standing in a small group, watching Roxen as she stands on the platform, where four small podiums stand. She’s in the middle of them, and places the palms of her hands on the round, pale blue orbs at the tops of them.

She looks down, eyes closed as she concentrates. She focuses on the energy flowing through her limbs, and directs them to her hands and through the podiums. She sees a teal color behind her eyes, her qualezi flowing. It begins to work, but takes a bit of struggle, her brow furrowing. Right when she thinks she has it, when it might be enough, it drains, and she gives up. Releasing the breath she was unaware of holding, she opens her eyes, head still lowered.

“Is everything okay?” Al asks from behind her.

“It’s fine, I just….” She trails off. Just what? Just can’t do it, after ten thousand years of dormancy making her weak? She’s not telling all these people that, not when she is supposed to be the strong, respected older princess.

“I think I can help,” Fala says, and she ends up standing just behind Roxen. She looks up to see an expectant and knowing look on her sister’s face.

She lets two arms fall away from the podiums, and stands aside so Fala can stand by her side. Fala places her two hands where Roxen’s were and holds her free ones, the closest to Roxen, our for her to take.

Roxen interlaces her fingers on one hand with of Fala’s, then they wrap their free arms around the conjoined ones, forming a bond that probably looks complicated to the humans with their two arms. Fala gives her one more, genuine smile, which Roxen returns. Then, both of them close their eyes and lower their heads. Roxen once again focuses on her energy, but this time her turquoise is mixed with pink, and their combined qualezii is enough to work.

Roxen raises her head and opens her eyes, looking at the holographic map filling the whole room. Planets, suns and moons take the form of pale sparkling shapes, with tiny texts of names floating near the star systems.

The humans behind her quietly exclaim in awe of it all. She doesn’t blame them, this is something that shocks everyone when they first see it.

“From here we can track down anything, including lions, and get their coordinates,” Roxen says, her and Fala freeing all eight of their arms and turning to face the others.

“How do we do that?” Rose asks.

“Like this,” Fala says, and Roxen feels a small blip of pink qualezi as five markers appear, each a different color.

“If the Black Lion is in the castle, and it’s here,” Rose points to the black marker, “does that mean we’re here?”

“Yes. This is Canus,” Sahdiil says, pointing to the planet under the marker, part of the Twaaval system.

“So, I have to go all the way over here?” Al says, standing across the room from Rose, by the blue marker. It’s closer to the floor than the black one, and they’re looking between the two, judging the distance.

“You’ll have a pod, and a wormhole,” Fala says.

“Yes! It’ll go by faster than gurbmion dobash,” Sahdiil says.

“What’s that?” Al asks, amused.

“A dobash? 100 ticks of course,” Sahdiil answers.

“And those are?”

“Wha— measurements of time,  _ of course _ .”

“Oh, is a dobash like a minute?” Rose asks.

“What’s that?”

“Sixty seconds?”

“What are those?”

Before the whole process repeats, Roxen says, “Can we focus please?”

“Sorry,” Rose, Al, and Sahdiil say in unison, facing Roxen and Fala again.

“Anyway, yes Al, you will travel to that planet. All of you will go to your respective lions and bring them back here,” Roxen says.

“How are you so sure these are  _ our _ lions?” Akari asks.

“Besides your qualezii, it’s obvious in your personality,” Fala says.

“Personality?” Kat asks.

“Yes, all your personalities reflect the personalities of those typically assigned to be Paladins of certain lions.”

“For example,” Roxen says, watching the black marker float in place. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose confidantes will follow without hesitation,” Roxen says, then looks at Katsuo. “Does that sound familiar?”

His face tells her it does. She continues, moving the black marker away and pulling the green one close. “The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring,” Roxen says, shifting her vision again. “Rose, you have already shown signs of this since we met.”

Rose looks shocked. Her mouth fell open slightly, but then she smiles, proud.

Fala continues with the next one, willing the next marker closer. “The Blue Lion is adaptive and supportive. It’s pilot is someone who cares about and looks out for their teammates. Al, you will pilot the Blue Lion.”

Roxen watches Al’s face shift from confusion to awe to glee, then they whisper “Cool,” while watching the marker. Their eyes follow it as Fala selects the yellow marker.

“The yellow lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above their own. Their heart must be mighty. Sefa, as a leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.”

Sefa looks behind him incredulously, then to the princess, and questionably points to himself. Roxen smiles in amusement and nods. He looks shocked by that, as if he doesnt fit the description, but Al knocks their elbow to his, giddy and smiling, and both of them cheer up a little.

“The red lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master,” Fala says, pulling the final marker closer, “It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone.” Roxen looks from it to Akari. “Akari, you will fly the red lion.”

He looks at the marker for a moment, face neutral in thought. Then, slowly, a grin firms on his lips, happily watching the marker spin in a lazy circle in from of Roxen.

“The Green Lion is on the Planet Gehiri, the Blue Lion is on Yaubos, Yellow on Breron, and Red on Libothea,” Roxen says as the markets all float back to their original positions. “We will use pods to get to them individually.”

“We should split into four pairs to get them,” Kat suggests, “That way, we have two people to fly the lion and pods back.”

Roxen nods, and Fala says, “But, who goes with who?”

“I’ll go with Kat,” Akari says. Kat nods.

“I can go with Al, and explain what a tick is,” Sahdiil says, giving them a look that says it’s like they had to teach them what air is.

Al smirks back, and shrugs to Roxen. “Sure.”

“Then by that logic, can I go with you?” Rose asks Roxen. “I have a  _ lot _ of questions that you don’t seem to mind answering.”

Roxen chuckles, “Of course.”

“That leaves us,” Sefa says to Fala, who smiles.

“It’s settled then,” she says, turning that smile to Roxen.

Yes, settled. Ten thousand years, five strange paladins, five lions, one galactic tyrant, and one savior of the universe. How hard can it be?

**Author's Note:**

> Ah! This has been in the making for a looong time! I really hope you enjoyed, and know that comments are greatly appreciated (and validate me hhhhh)
> 
> The official blog for this reboot is @voltron-savioroftheuniverse on tumblr! Feel free to send me an ask about pronunciations (because I throw alien names around like crazy dksjflkalda) or if you just wanna tell me what you thought! Thanks for reading <3


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